Superman’s ‘Action Comics’ No. 1 sets record with $6 million sale.
Superman has leapt to a world record in a single bound. An issue of Action Comic No. 1, which introduced the world to the Kryptonian hero, sold at auction for a record $6 million last week, catapulting it to the hallowed status as the most valuable comic book in the world.
Heritage Auctions called it the "most important, impactful comic book ever published. Without Superman and Action Comics No. 1, who knows whether there ever would have been a Golden Age of comics - or if the medium would have become what it is today," Heritage Auctions Vice President Barry Sandoval said.
The comic, from creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, was published in 1938 and is arguably the most important in superhero comic book history. It also had the important advantage of having a grade of 8.5 out of 10, meaning it’s in excellent condition for a comic of its age.
The price achieved tops an issue of 1939’s Superman No. 1, which sold for $5.3 million in 2022. Before that, the most valuable comic in the world was a copy of 1962’s Amazing Fantasy No. 15, the first appearance of Spider-Man, which sold for $3.6 million in 2021.
Action Comics No. 1 is exceedingly rare, with just 78 copies tracked by CGC, the service that authenticates and grades the condition of comic books. The service believes there are around 100 in existence total out of 200,000 initially printed by National Allied Publications, a forerunner of DC Comics.
Maybe you've got one tucked away at the back of a cupboard?
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